Transcript

00:00:02

>> Crawling along adjusting highway in Mongolia is Gobi Desert. Thousands of trucks many of the pack with cola stuck in a grueling and sometime deadly traffic jam. That destination is laboring China but the que to the Buddha stretches back more than 80 miles.>> I have nothing to do except to wait in line in my truck.

00:00:23

I do things to try to distract myself, but it's very boring.>> China's appetite for coal has sparked an optic in cross border trade, but it isn't the only thing being transported along this road. Reuter's Terrence Edwards explains why that's causing severe delays.>> Mongolian customs authority have told us that they are cracking down on the smuggling of goods such as meat and guns.

00:00:46

Drivers say they're waiting between seven and ten days before they could get passage to the Chinese border, unload their haul, and then do it all over again. These truck drivers are essentially living out of their trucks eating, sleeping, and even cooking out of their front cabins.>> The narrow road can also be treacherous at night and we no street lamps and high levels of drink driving seems like this a worryingly common adding to the holdups that could spell economic trouble.

00:01:14

>> Delays at the border are going to be a speed bump for the Mongolian economy. It was coal trade that was lifting economic activity after last years small economic crisis. Coal miners were able to fetch higher prices from buyers and China's inner Mongolia after the closure of some of China's domestic mines and bans on import through North Korea.

00:01:38

>> Coal miners say a new railway is the solution. The Mongolian government had started laying the foundations for one but after 150 miles of track went down, the money dried up and the project was abandoned, leaving these drivers with little option but to suck up the painstaking wait.